Artists matched speed dating-style showcase songs

Songs by composers and poets matched "speed-dating" style will be performed in Leeds later.

The Leeds Songbook concert will celebrate the city's unsung heroes, organisers said - with the hope many of those featured will attend the performance.

Part of the Leeds Song Festival, the project saw composers and poets spend a day together earlier this year, before shortlisting their three favourite collaborators, and ultimately being paired up.

Composition lead Martin Iddon said: "It's relatively unusual for the composer not to get to choose the poet they work with. But because of that it is quite an exciting compositional challenge. It makes it quite a human project."

Iddon said many of the songs were written about Leeds people who often did not get the credit they deserved.

He said: "These people are quite literally unsung most of the time, so hopefully they get the experience of someone highlighting quite how important they are to the city."

One of those involved is the poet Lydia Kennaway, who is originally from New York but has lived in Leeds for 48 years.

Her poem The Language of Flowers, which is about her florist neighbour Carole Taylor, is one of the works set to be performed.

She worked with composer Maxwell Nelson.

Kennaway said the city and Yorkshire as a whole provided inspiration for many of her poems.

"The landscape, the history, but also the people (provide inspiration)," she said.

"There's so much humour and generosity here.

"I know Yorkshire people are supposed to be tight-fisted, but in my experience they are emotionally generous, and that is very stimulating and rewarding, especially to a poet."

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